1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-volatile memory, such as a flash memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a flash memory such as a NAND flash memory, a combination of data (e.g., 512 bytes or 2 KB in size) and a redundant portion (e.g., several to hundreds of bytes in size) is treated as one page, and besides the user data, an ECC for error correction and management information are stored therein.
In some flash memories, an ECC process is performed within the flash memories, but in general, information other than the data is also read from the flash memories first and thereafter subjected to processing as the data is.